I've got a 3.51 from a top public university. I majored in chemistry and physics. What's the feeling on whether this gives my gpa a little bit of a boost? I scored a 173 on the LSAT so for the schools I'm hoping to get into (waiting to hear from upenn, columbia, nyu, gtown...already got into uva) I know my gpa is rather low...

Everybody on here says that it doesn't matter and that science/math/engineering are as difficult as any other major. Based on the stats you see on LSN, I'm tempted to believe that the actual major doesn't matter but I don't really know for sure. Good luck.

EDIT: In fact, many schools have an formula that uses GPA and LSAT to arrive at an "index." I'm guess they use the index to rank and prioritize certain applicants. So for schools like that, I'm sure major doesn't play as big a role as schools that don't use a formula

Marisa5252 wrote:I've got a 3.51 from a top public university. I majored in chemistry and physics. What's the feeling on whether this gives my gpa a little bit of a boost? I scored a 173 on the LSAT so for the schools I'm hoping to get into (waiting to hear from upenn, columbia, nyu, gtown...already got into uva) I know my gpa is rather low...

Unfortunately, I don't think the difficulty of major matters very much at all. I majored in bio/chem, which is probably not as bad as chem/physics, but at least we don't have it as bad as some engineering majors. At a lot of places as 3.5 in engineering is equivalent to a 3.8 in other fields. But schools do not seem to see it this way. I would like to think it has to do with administrative ease (and issues of equity) rather than concern over US News rankings, but I suspect the latter might be a large factor.

ScaredWorkedBored wrote:3.51 in hard sciences is better than 3.51 in political science. It's not as good as 3.8 in political science.

+1. Adcomm panel of GULC, GWU and Mason at work was unanimous: engineers / "hard" majors get more life with a high LSAT score than do poli sci majors. If 10/230 applicants with a 173/3.51 are to get accepted at columbia, i've been led to believe that 7 of them will likely be "hard" major students.

This is the only boost I'd expect you to see. I'm a fellow "hard major" applicant and this has been my experience so far.

I know Dean Pless at UIUC is big on difficult majors. He said he would prefer someone with a lower gpa but a hard major (engineering/accounting/math) than a higher gpa but cupcake major (advertising/history/communications)

edit: obviously within reason

Last edited by BearDownChicago on Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

prezidentv8 wrote:I'd bet it puts you over the top at a couple places you've got borderline numbers.

This is what I'm hoping. I'm like RIGHT on the line for UPENN (my #1 choice) if I look at LSN - maybe there are few more of those lovely little green dots around me than the red ones but it's very very close.

prezidentv8 wrote:I'd bet it puts you over the top at a couple places you've got borderline numbers.

This is what I'm hoping. I'm like RIGHT on the line for UPENN (my #1 choice) if I look at LSN - maybe there are few more of those lovely little green dots around me than the red ones but it's very very close.

prezidentv8 wrote:I'd bet it puts you over the top at a couple places you've got borderline numbers.

This is what I'm hoping. I'm like RIGHT on the line for UPENN (my #1 choice) if I look at LSN - maybe there are few more of those lovely little green dots around me than the red ones but it's very very close.

prezidentv8 wrote:I'd bet it puts you over the top at a couple places you've got borderline numbers.

This is what I'm hoping. I'm like RIGHT on the line for UPENN (my #1 choice) if I look at LSN - maybe there are few more of those lovely little green dots around me than the red ones but it's very very close.

Man, Philly rocks. Hope you get in.

Philadelphia does rock. I actually work in a lab at UPENN

Nice. I spent a summer out there, and it was great. Arguably one of the most underrated big cities in the country imo.

prezidentv8 wrote:I'd bet it puts you over the top at a couple places you've got borderline numbers.

This is what I'm hoping. I'm like RIGHT on the line for UPENN (my #1 choice) if I look at LSN - maybe there are few more of those lovely little green dots around me than the red ones but it's very very close.

Man, Philly rocks. Hope you get in.

Philadelphia does rock. I actually work in a lab at UPENN

I'm glad you actually call it UPENN like I'm used to. It seems no one else on this board says that.

ScaredWorkedBored wrote:3.51 in hard sciences is better than 3.51 in political science. It's not as good as 3.8 in political science.

+1. Adcomm panel of GULC, GWU and Mason at work was unanimous: engineers / "hard" majors get more life with a high LSAT score than do poli sci majors. If 10/230 applicants with a 173/3.51 are to get accepted at columbia, i've been led to believe that 7 of them will likely be "hard" major students.

This is the only boost I'd expect you to see. I'm a fellow "hard major" applicant and this has been my experience so far.

So, can these people who believe their major was "hard" rank the majors? I'm constantly befuddled by the notion that science majors think their major was harder than liberal arts students, and I kinda take umbrage with it. However, I'd like to see this hierarchy spelled out specifically.

ScaredWorkedBored wrote:3.51 in hard sciences is better than 3.51 in political science. It's not as good as 3.8 in political science.

+1. Adcomm panel of GULC, GWU and Mason at work was unanimous: engineers / "hard" majors get more life with a high LSAT score than do poli sci majors. If 10/230 applicants with a 173/3.51 are to get accepted at columbia, i've been led to believe that 7 of them will likely be "hard" major students.

This is the only boost I'd expect you to see. I'm a fellow "hard major" applicant and this has been my experience so far.

So, can these people who believe their major was "hard" rank the majors? I'm constantly befuddled by the notion that science majors think their major was harder than liberal arts students, and I kinda take umbrage with it. However, I'd like to see this hierarchy spelled out specifically.

"Hard" doesn't translate to "difficult" here. "Hard" describes the major as having a basis in the "hard" sciences vs. the "soft" sciences. Hard sciences = bio/chem/physics and in this case engineering. Soft sciences = polysci, sociology, anthro, etc. Soft sciences also equals "social sciences," whereas hard sciences also equals "physical sciences." No one is judging your english major.